Review: Harley Quinn “The Runaway Bridesmaid”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Things have calmed down a lot in Gotham. Most criminals, including Harley, have been locked up in Arkham. She’s dead set on not ruining more of Ivy’s life, even refusing rescue. Speaking of, Ivy kills Condiment King in order to secure the rustic wedding of Kite Man’s dreams, which is the least she can do to prove to him that, regardless of whatever she’s done with Harley, she only loves him and wants to marry him. At least, she thinks. And while Gordon has done a lot to save the city, he gets overlooked for a key to the city, which drives him up a wall. This is a perfect opportunity for Two Face to start manipulating both him to sting the wedding since it will have nearly every remaining supervillain attending, AND Harley to show up so she’ll be end up screwing that up.

Ivy thinks Harley is just being Harley again while Kite Man is beside himself that she’s even there, but eventually the ceremony comes, only saved by Harley’s timely intervention saving the guests from Gordon’s sting. Still, something clicks for Kite Man finally: Ivy just doesn’t want to marry him. And while Harley is still eager to make the ceremony work, he’s had enough and kites away. That just leaves her and Ivy to escape by themselves and, with no excuses left, the two finally kiss as their getaway car flies through police gunfire. The End?

OUR TAKE

This season, possibly series, finale of Harley Quinn does feel like a bit of an improvement over the first on paper. It focuses on more personal stakes than trying to make them weirdly high, it puts Harley and Ivy’s complicated relationship front and center, and it steers away from what the climax to a more typical comic based show would be. And yet, it doesn’t feel like it quite stuck the landing. It’s still got its hilarious cast, its sharp as a tack writing, and its fun easter eggs in DC lore, but something about about this finale felt off to me. Not enough to make it a bad episode, certainly, but still. Maybe it was how Two-Face orchestrated both Gordon and Harley to mess up the wedding for no clear reason, maybe it was how Gordon kinda felt like he was wasting his previous character development, or even how there was just a sense of wanting to cut to the chase with Harley and Ivy and ending up feeling rushed a bit a result. A lot of characters got to have little bits to do, though not as much as I would’ve liked. Basically this episode felt like it had a lot of cut corners, which is disappointing for any finale, let alone what might be its last.

Harley and Ivy getting together was practically expected from day one, but I’m glad it’s had about half the season to really explore it before pulling the trigger on it at the end here. I’m of two minds about Kite Man’s role in all of this though. On one hand, how he and Ivy have developed their relationship has been one of the cuter aspects of the show and I’ve come to care about him as a character in his own right as opposed to just a placeholder who got out when his time was over. On the other, it’s pretty sad to see him get the raw deal with how Ivy started realizing her feelings towards Harley, even if how complicated it is might be part of the point. This was always going to be a messy process for everyone involved, so I’m glad that it ends with him realizing that he doesn’t want to be married to someone who will always be second guessing their relationship when he’s so sure (even though he probably could’ve at least gotten them out of there before ditching them in an understandable huff). Harley ends up looking alright by the end of that, since her sights are set on Ivy’s happiness, even if it’s not with her, though I do wish we had gotten a bit of time between the engagement breaking off and them getting together to help that process. Still, if this show gets another season, we could be seeing what a lot of shows with romance tend to not bother exploring: all the story potential of newly formed and reciprocated romance.

With the debut of HBO Max this past month, the fate of the DC Universe app and its original content has been pretty up, up, and in the air. Titans has somehow been renewed for a third season (though the pandemic has likely delayed that for some time, thank god), Doom Patrol is currently airing its second season on both that app and HBO Max, Young Justice’s fourth season has received no new since its announcement, and Star Girl is currently airing its first season on the app and the CW. There’s been no news on what will become of Harley Quinn now that its initial 26 episode order is complete, though one would hope that it’s strong critical reception be a factor in keeping it around at least another season longer. As I’ve said many times before, it’s one of the best shows on the service, so if Titans of all things can get three seasons, it would be a real shame if this didn’t either. With that, we close the book on coverage of DC Universe for awhile, but let it be known that there’s a Mad Love for this series.